Consumer prices jump 5% in May, fastest pace since the summer of 2008

Consumer prices for May accelerated at their fastest pace in nearly 13 years as inflation pressures continued to build in the U.S. economy, the Labor Department reported Thursday.

The consumer price index, which represents a basket including food, energy, groceries, housing costs and sales across a spectrum of goods, rose 5% from a year ago. Economists surveyed by Dow Jones had been expecting a gain of 4.7%.

The reading represented the biggest CPI gain since the 5.3% increase in August 2008, just before the worst of the financial crisis sent the U.S. spiraling into the worst recession it had seen since the Great Depression.

Though the inflation readings are well above anything seen since the financial crisis, the Federal Reserve has been largely dismissive of the numbers. Central bank officials believe the current rise is due to temporary factors that will abate as the year goes on and look higher because of comparisons to the year-ago period when much of the economic activity remained restricted due to pandemic precautions.

Consequently, market participants generally do not expect to see the Fed react to the latest numbers when the policymaking Federal Open Market Committee meets next week.

A separate gauge that excludes volatile food and energy prices increased 3.8%, vs the Dow Jones estimate of 3.5% for so-called core inflation. That was the fastest pace since May 1992.

Another report released Thursday showed that jobless claims for the week ended June 5 came in at 376,000. The estimate was 370,000. The total still marked the lowest of the pandemic era.

Investors, though, remain heavily focused on inflation, which hasn’t been a major threat to the U.S. economy since the early 1980s.

On a monthly basis, the headline CPI rose 0.8% while the core was up 0.7%. The estimate was 0.5% for both readings.

Markets largely shrugged off Thursday’s inflation report, with stock market futures indicating a gain at the open though government bond yields moved higher. The benchmark 10-year Treasury note last traded near 1.52%.

Used cars and truck prices continued their climb higher, rising 7.3% on the month and 29.7% for the past 12 months. However, the energy index was about flat for the month despite the huge run-up in gasoline prices this year, while the food index repeated its April rise of 0.4%.

The gasoline index is up 56.2% over the past year, part of an overall 28.5% increase in energy during the period. Food prices have remained comparatively tame, up 2.2% for the 12-month period.

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